Blacksburg, VA

H 540-315-4512
B iyeaton@vt.edu
isaacyeaton.com

Isaac Yeaton
Education
expected Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech,
2016 Advisors: Shane Ross & Jake Socha.

2014 Master of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech.

2011 Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, University of New Hampshire.

Research Experience
2013present Graduate Research Assistant, Ross Lab & Socha Lab, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
I work in the area of comparative biomechanics, where I applying engineering principles dynamical
systems concepts to animal systems, specifically to understand flying snake locomotion. This includes
combined numerical and analytical stability theory tools to understanding how the aerodynamic
characteristics of an animal affect its glide performance and expected behavior. I also use high-speed
video and motion capture to flying snake glides and how time-varying mass and aerodynamic force
distributions affect locomotor performance and stability.

Summer 2013 Visiting Research Assistant, 2013 Computational Physics Workshop, Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM.
While at the workshop I developed Python code to test different diffusion solver implementations for
mixed-cell, Eulerian hydrodynamics applications.

20112013 Graduate Research Assistant, Commonwealth Center for Aerospace Propulsion Systems,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
I worked on designing and simulating a combined laser diagnostic technique for combustion flows. I
was also responsible for laser doppler velocimetry and shadowgraph measurements in an afterburner
test facility.

Summer 2011 Undergraduate Research Assistant, UNH Electromagnetic Forming Lab, University of
Summer 2010 New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
I performed a stability analysis of the wavy interface created during the magnetic pulsed welding.
This was a combined fluids-solid problem with interface geometry resembling a Kelvin-Helmholtz fluid
instability.

2010 Senior capstone project, Biorefinery design for lignocellulosic ethanol, University of New
Hampshire, Durham, NH.
I worked with another mechanical engineering student to design and build a model biorefinery. I
performed particle image velocimetry measurements for two different mixers in our model system.

Publications
201 I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha, S.D. Ross. Global dynamics of non-equilibrium animal gliding. In
preparation
2013 R. Blanchard, A. Wickersham, I.J. Yeaton, C. Fleischman, S. Ekkad, W. Ng, U. Vandsburger,
L. Ma, K.T. Lowe. Test Capabilities in the CCAPS/CSDL Augmentor Development Facility.
55th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, January 7-10, 2013.
2012 I.J. Yeaton, P. Maisto, K.T. Lowe. Time Resolved Filtered Rayleigh Scattering for Temperature and Density Measurements. 28th Aerodynamic Measurement Technology, Ground
Testing, and Flight Testing Conference. June 2528, 2012.

Isaac Yeaton

Curriculum Vitae

updated January 2016

Presentations
Conference presentations
2016 I.J. Yeaton, G. Baumgardner, T. Weiss, G. Nave, S.D. Ross, J.J. Socha. Snakes in a Cube:
High-resolution kinematics of gliding in flying snakes. Society for Integrative and Comparative
Biology Annual Meeting. Portland, OR.
2015 I.J. Yeaton, G. Baumgardner, T. Weiss, G. Nave, S.D. Ross, J.J. Socha. Whats its wave?
A 3D analysis of flying snake locomotion. 68th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid
Dynamics. Boston, MA.
2015 I.J. Yeaton, G. Baumgardner, T. Weiss, G. Nave, S.D. Ross, J.J. Socha. Recent experiments
on flying snake kinematics. Southeast Regional Society for Integrative and Comparative
Biology Meeting. Atlanta, GA.
2015 I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha, S.D. Ross. Snakes on An Invariant Plane: Coupled TranslationalRotational Dynamics of Flying Snakes. SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical
Systems. Snowbird, UT.
2015 I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha, S.D. Ross. A generalized dynamical framework for non-equilibrium
gliding in animals. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting. West
Palm Beach, FL.
2015 J.J. Socha, C. Twyman, I.J. Yeaton. Landing without limbs: body shape during arboreal
landings in flying snakes. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting.
West Palm Beach, FL.
2014 I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha, S.D. Ross. A generalized dynamical framework for non-equilibrium
gliding in animals. Southeast Regional Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Meeting. Chapel Hill, NC.
2014 I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha, S.D. Ross. Turn decomposition for flying snakes. AmeriMech 2014:
Mechanics in Biology II. Blacksburg, VA.
2012 I.J. Yeaton, P. Maisto, K.T. Lowe. Time Resolved Filtered Rayleigh Scattering for Temperature and Density Measurements. 28th Aerodynamic Measurement Technology, Ground
Testing, and Flight Testing Conference. New Orleans, LA

Seminars and Technical presentations

2015 Community Playdate on flying snake glide experiments. Institute for Creativity, Arts, and
Technology. Virginia Tech.
2013 Advanced Diagnostics Development for Combusting Flow Research. Presented at Cold
Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. Hanover, NH
2013 Numerical Study for Diffusion in Material Mixtures Part I: Pure Materials. Summer research
presentation at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos, NM.

Posters
2014 G. Baumgardner, I.J. Yeaton, J.J. Socha. Flying snake landing: How limbless gliders
dissipate energy on impact. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting.
Portland, OR.
2014 I.J. Yeaton, T. Weiss, J.J. Socha. Flying snakes and Skittering frogs and how Isaac Yeaton,
Talia Weiss, and Jake Socha study them. SciPy Conference. Austin, TX.

Funding and Awards

2015 APS DFD Student Travel Award to attend 68th Annual Meeting of the American Physical
Societys Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD), November 22-24, 2015 in in Boston, MA.
2014 SIAM Student Travel Award to attend SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical
Systems (DS15), May 17-21, 2015 in in Snowbird, Utah.

Isaac Yeaton

Curriculum Vitae

updated January 2016

2014 Awarded $693 from the Virginia Tech Graduate Research Development Fund to pursue an
interdisciplinary project with two other students. Proposal titled Electrodynamics of planarian
neuroregeneration on the cellular and organismal levels.
2014 Awarded two years of graduate funding through MultiSTEPS IGERT program at Virginia
Tech.
2013 Awarded one year of graduate funding through Virginia Tech IGEP program via the MultiSTEPS program.
2011 Davenport Graduate Fellowship at Virginia Tech.
20072011 Various merit-based scholarships at the University of New Hampshire.

Professional Experience
Teaching and Internships
Spring 2015 Guest lecturer, Mechanics of Animal Locomotion in Fluids, Virginia Tech.
Aerodynamic stability of gliding and flying animals.

Summer 2009 Engineering Intern, Erigo Technologies, Enfield, NH.

I constructed a Matlab user front-end for a thermal battery analysis program. I also assisted in
titanium MIG welding technology.

Summer 2008 Engineering Intern, FujiFilm Dimatix, Lebanon, NH.

I performed a gage R&R on different temperature measurement techniques (thermocouples, hand
held gauges, infrared camera, and fiber optics) for silicon printheads.

Research mentorships
2014, 2015 Grant Baumgardner, Mechanical Engineering major, Virginia Tech.
Research projects: Energy dissipation during flying snake landing, assistance with flying snake glide
trials.

Professional Affiliations and Societies

American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
American Physical Society
Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society

Service
Experience in reviewing for: Journal of Experimental Biology, Functional Ecology, Science,
Scientific Reports, eLife, European Physical Journal, and Chaos.

References
Shane Ross: sdross@vt.edu PhD co-advisor
Jake Socha: jjsocha@vt.edu PhD co-advisor
Mark Paul: mrp@vt.edu PhD committee member

Isaac Yeaton

Curriculum Vitae

updated January 2016